A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
It's easy to speculate on things, and without seeing the spec of how the river was constructed - albeit nearly 400 years ago - is difficult judge, what is certain though is that the Gault clay dug out did not get there by natural build up of silt. The silt is mainly brought in from the sea and is deposited on the river bed over decades and consists mainly of sand, see photo below, this is what they should be dredging out

3DA55570-2E98-45FB-A452-DEDC2FC99045.png
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
But maybe if we were more like Iceland and jailed a few more people, lessons would be!
Mmm don't like your thinking there. You can't get anyone decent to do these jobs now, I don't think the threat of jail if you screw up is going to entice people.
Maybe its just better if all these departments disappear and nothing gets done?

Whenever dredging waterways is mentioned on here, there's always lots of JFDI comments. Now someone's done something and they get hammered for it.
 

Bongodog

Member
Mmm don't like your thinking there. You can't get anyone decent to do these jobs now, I don't think the threat of jail if you screw up is going to entice people.
Maybe its just better if all these departments disappear and nothing gets done?

Whenever dredging waterways is mentioned on here, there's always lots of JFDI comments. Now someone's done something and they get hammered for it.
Totally different circumstances, the usual JFDI comments are in regard to the EA not doing the work preferring to commission endless reports instead of some simple dredging. In this instance the EA have commissioned the work and made a complete mess of it despite all their supposed superior technical knowledge.
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
Totally different circumstances, the usual JFDI comments are in regard to the EA not doing the work preferring to commission endless reports instead of some simple dredging. In this instance the EA have commissioned the work and made a complete mess of it despite all their supposed superior technical knowledge.
Agree, this is a monumental cock up. If this had been done by anyone other than the EA book after book would thrown at the perpetrators. The fact that the EA commissioned this work, and are responsible for it, needs to be reconciled with their treatment of others.
If the EA want to hold others rigidly to their responsibilities and prosecute even minor or unintended misdemeanours, then those same people need to judge themselves by those same standards.
 

grass man

Member
Excuse my ignorance, is there a local availability of this clay that was used and how was it constructed? If the river is 15ft above ground level, where is that in relation to sea level? I'm sure that was a massive project all those years ago built with skill and practical brainpower, without any gps or laser aids and now sounds like someone has pulled the plug on it and then will wonder where the water has gone. It's an unbelievable thing to happen. As allready has been mentioned mankind in general had much more sense back then
 

kiwi pom

Member
Location
canterbury NZ
Totally different circumstances, the usual JFDI comments are in regard to the EA not doing the work preferring to commission endless reports instead of some simple dredging. In this instance the EA have commissioned the work and made a complete mess of it despite all their supposed superior technical knowledge.
It seems they have screwed up despite the resources available but had they not been the only ones allowed to do such work I'd imagine there'd be loads of farmer cock ups too.
I'm not trying to stick up for them but we don't know what actually happened and yet everyone's an expert.
Maybe the contractor had the plans upside down.
Who knows?
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
Excuse my ignorance, is there a local availability of this clay that was used and how was it constructed? If the river is 15ft above ground level, where is that in relation to sea level? I'm sure that was a massive project all those years ago built with skill and practical brainpower, without any gps or laser aids and now sounds like someone has pulled the plug on it and then will wonder where the water has gone. It's an unbelievable thing to happen. As allready has been mentioned mankind in general had much more sense back then

Not sure which particular clay it is that’s used but West Cambs has plenty of clay, plenty of ‘Brickyard Farms’ around here.
 

B'o'B

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Rutland
It seems they have screwed up despite the resources available but had they not been the only ones allowed to do such work I'd imagine there'd be loads of farmer cock ups too.
I'm not trying to stick up for them but we don't know what actually happened and yet everyone's an expert.
Maybe the contractor had the plans upside down.
Who knows?
Its a part of nationally significant infrastructure. The EA are responsible for it, who commissioned the contractor, the EA. Who didn’t check the contractor knew what they were doing, the EA.
 

onthehoof

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Cambs
Excuse my ignorance, is there a local availability of this clay that was used and how was it constructed? If the river is 15ft above ground level, where is that in relation to sea level? I'm sure that was a massive project all those years ago built with skill and practical brainpower, without any gps or laser aids and now sounds like someone has pulled the plug on it and then will wonder where the water has gone. It's an unbelievable thing to happen. As allready has been mentioned mankind in general had much more sense back then
The two nearest villages are Sutton Gault and Mepal, Mepal has a place called Gault hole.
The river is at sea level, the surrounding land is 15ft below sea level hence the potential seriousness of the situation.
 

No wot

Member
not sure but i reckon more likely is that they (EA) are ignorant and don't know what they are doing, poor workmanship etc.
All the working men that knew the working practicalities of river management and maintenance were made redundant yrs ago and replaced by clipboard , degree type managers , who are more sympathetic to the likes of Chris Packham than a man with 40yrs of river management skills
 

No wot

Member
Looking on Google Maps is this known as New Bedford River , looks like the River Great Ouse runs into it , one hell of amount of water flowing there , for something to go wrong, must be some extremely worried people around that area .
 

Andrew

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
Huntingdon, UK
Looking on Google Maps is this known as New Bedford River , looks like the River Great Ouse runs into it , one hell of amount of water flowing there , for something to go wrong, must be some extremely worried people around that area .
Yes. Milton Keynes and Bedford all drain into it, there's a lot of water flow as they built on all the flood planes upriver
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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